The Gallery – We Want To Be Together!

This week to complement St Valentine’s Day Tara has given us the theme of Togetherness for our Gallery posts.  This was an easy one for me.  It had to be about the twins.  I am going to post two entries to the gallery this week, this is the first.  Esther and William as they get reacquainted in NICU after weeks in separate incubators.

When Esther and William were Reunited for the first time outside of the womb in NICU, it was the most wonderful experience of my life.  They just seemed to just know that they belonged together.  Here are Esther and Willliam clearly demonstrating TOGETHERNESS.

All I Want for Valentine's Is……

This week it’s gift time, it is Valentine’s day after all …

Shopping time! Buy yourself a Valentine’s present.

Window shopping on the internet. What would you buy yourself for Valentine’s Day. Spend as much as you like, buy what you want.

Extra Valentine’s bonus: great minds think alike! Over at Kate Takes 5, this week’s listography is “Things I’d like for Valentine’s Day“. Write 1 post for double linky action. Love is in the air, love yourself!

This Valentine’s Day I would like …

close up

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/skybluesea/product/charm_necklace

I really love this necklace and I emailed the lady to ask if I could have it with 4 letters on – J, D, E and W.  She agreed to do this and so now I am hoping that it really will appear with the Valentine’s Post!  I might even wear it for our wedding!!

Happy Valentine’s One and All!

I Was, I Am, I Will Be …

I stumbled across this post today http://thesyders.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-was-i-am-i-will-be.html and decided to use it as inspiration for a post of my own.  I love the idea of thinking where I have been, where I am and where I am going to.  I have been many things in my time and so choosing the three most significant is quite difficult to do, particularly where the past is concerned.  I have been many things, not all as good as I would like.  For the purposes of this blog about parenting though I think that I should tell you about how I was a Nan and Granddad’s Girl, how I am a Mummy and I will be a wonderful wife!

Here goes …

As a young girl there was nothing I loved more than being with my Nanny and Granddad Jock, my Dad’s parents.  For my very early childhood they lived just up the road from us at 167 Grange Road, we lived at 205.  I would often spend time with them in their house and garden, and in my Granddad’s shed.  My Granddad was good at making things out of wood.  He made my sister and I a wonderful dolls’ house and he made us hobby horses too.  He also made a money box for all the cousins in which he used to save up money for us to spend on our holidays.  As an extended family we used to go to Haven or Pontins and we all had a wonderful time.  My Nan made wonderful soup and dumplings which I loved.  Every Sunday we used to go to their house for a roast dinner, the whole family and it was just great.  On Saturdays people would come to our house for tea and cards.  I remember that my Granddad used to talk to anyone and everyone whenever we were out and about.  I remember, correctly or incorrectly, that he used to take me to the high street and buy me shoes.  I remember as I got older not saying that I liked things when out with Granddad because often what I said I liked he would buy.  When we moved to Cyprus and left my Grandparents behind I was devastated.  They came to visit us at least twice a year though and they always brought pic n mix sweets that you could not buy outside of the UK.  I loved their cuddles and as I got older I adored their company.  Especially my Nan.  After Cyprus we lived again in England for a short while and I spent so much time at my Nan and Granddad’s house.  I used to play swingball in their garden and dig for treasure that Granddad had buried near the runner beans.  I used to love the smells in the shed and the greenhouse.  I can still smell them now.  After eighteen months we moved away again to Germany and again left Nan and Granddad behind.  Again though they visited us often and I cherished the time that we had.  When I was 13 my Granddad died.  I found him, in the extension, after he collapsed with his heart.  He died after or during an operation I am not sure which.  I remember being so angry with my parents because they had not let me see him in the hospital before he had died.  We stayed in England after he died until the funeral.  In my Nan’s house.  I spent all my time doing school work as I was worried about missing so much school.  I sat on a pouffe that Nan and Granddad had brought home from Cyprus.  I own that pouffe now.  It is split and losing all its stuffing but I will not throw it out.  I love it as it reminds me of them.  I also have the foldaway coffee table from their house that I did my school work on and played scrabble with my Nan on whilst eating maltesers.  Nan loved maltesers.  My Granddad died and I missed him so much.  At that time I wrote a diary and for months afterward I addressed it each day to my Granddad.  Dear Granddad Jock, it would say.  Losing my Granddad made me even closer to my Nan.  Neither of us went to his funeral.  I sat in her lap at Aunty Barbara’s house, I remember to this day.  She had been so good to me when my Mum’s Dad had died and held me while my parents were at his funeral, I wanted to hold her through Granddad’s too.  I used to love coming home from Germany to Nan.  We would watch Countdown and Home and Away together.  We would play scrabble and cards.  We would go up the corner shop to buy scratch cards.  My Nan loved her scratch cards!  I loved my Nan so much.  I remember that I used to devour her Mills and Boons books as a teenager and I remember how over the years the text size got larger and larger as she began to lose her sight.  Nan had a stroke before she died.  I remember her getting older and smaller and funny with her awkward ways.  But she was always wonderful to me and me to her.  I have never had a bad word to say about her and never could have.  I idolised my Nan and was heart broken when she died.  I still think about her all the time and I miss her everyday. I miss them both and wish with all my heart that they could see me now that I am a mother of children of my own.  I know that they would be so proud.  I was and always will be a Grandparents’ Girl.

I am a mother myself now.  I cannot believe it actually but it is true, and true twice over as I am a very lucky mother of twins.  If you know me or read this blog regularly then you will know that I find being Mummy to twins hard sometimes but I would not change it for the world and when I look at my beautiful children my heart fills with love a-new every single time.  One of the things I am most proud of is that I have breastfed Esther and William for almost 7 months now, and I have no plans to stop anytime soon.  It is one of the most precious things that I do as a Mother but it is also the one thing that means I get no time at all to be anything apart from a Mummy.  When I am tired and grumpy David will remind me that I chose to breastfeed and so really chose to be so tied to the twins, which is true but I had hoped by now that I would be able to get out long enough to pop to the gym or the shops or just have some time to get reacquainted with me.  It is a tricky situation; that one of the things that I love the most about being Mum is also the thing that exhausts me the most and can lead to me having difficult times.  I do wonder how other women feel.  I find breastfeeding very easy.  Both babies latch on well and feed efficiently, I have plenty of milk that flows freely.  With all of this going for me I still find it hard and so to have any of these things not working as it should it must make breastfeeding nigh on impossible, especially with two.  I would encourage Mummy’s to try breastfeeding as it is a wonderful experience but I would also say to not be too downhearted if it does not work for you as there are so many other magical mummy moments coming your way.  The smiles, the giggles, the firsts, the farts …  Everything and anything will be noted as a milestone or occasion of some sort as you celebrate this life that you have made and share and celebrate.  I am a Mummy and it is a wonderful thing!

I will be a loyal and loving wife.  In less than 7 months!  I will be a Henley and I just cannot wait.  Over the last four years I have come to know David and love him with all my heart.  I have fallen in love with him over and over again in the time that I have been fortunate enough to know him.  He is amazing and I am so so lucky that he is mine.  He is funny and clever, he is strong and kind, he is ambitious but homely, a loving father and my bestest friend.  I would follow him to the the ends of the earth and I would trust him with each and every one of my dreams.  He is my life and I want to be everything I can for him when I become his wife.  Mrs Jennie Henley I will be, and I cannot wait!!!

And everything I am, was, will be and can be has been leading to this one moment, the most important moment of my life when our family circle is complete.

I was, I am and I will be me, in all my guises, for all my many ways, and I know that it is as it should be and I dream of what we will go on to become x

 
 
 

Music I Want My Children To Listen To

My musical tastes have evolved through the years but instead of changing completely my love of music has grown stronger and my repertoire wider.  This is something not everyone understands and so depending on who you are you may only know part of my musical taste – the chosen few will know the full extent of my listening pleasures.  From Robbie to Kylie to Buddy – The Killers, The Cure, The Chemical Brothers – Johnny Cash, Brenda Lee, Connie Francis – West Side Story, Wizard of Oz, Les Mis – Goldie, Groove Armada, Massive Attack and Basement Jaxx.  I love them all and want my children to sample each and everyone of them … and more …

The music I loved in my own childhood was heavily influenced by my parents.  In particular one mix tape that we listened to over and over in the car featuring Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka and more … It was badly recorded and over recorded and we knew where all the breaks in the songs came and what song came next.  I loved 50s and 60s music as a child and I still do. I definitely want my children to understand the history and significance of rock and roll.

As a child of the 80s there was a time I am afraid to say when I loved all things Stock, Aitken and Waterman, especially Kylie.  I still do have a secret thing for Kylie and have already introduced my daughter to such classics as Never Too Late and Wouldn’t Change A Thing.  Thank you You Tube!

Around this time my cousins also introduced me to INXS, Bon Jovi and Aerosmith, alongside Wham!  Another branch on my tree of music was born.  Many of my dips and dives into different artists and bands have been influenced by Paul and Glen (the cousins) – Wet Wet Wet, AHa!!, George Michael and much much more.

As a young teenage I loved James, EMF, The Farm, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and The Cure amongst others.  I also love Madonna and began to get into Rave!  At Youth Club I loved Guns n Roses but would equally love dancing to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch!  Oh the memories!

As an older teenager my heart was firmly attached to dance music particularly house but also drum and bass whilst frequenting Cream at University!  I spent many mispent nights at Cream, Gatecrasher and many other, smaller, better, underground clubs across Europe.  I danced right through to my late 20s, until I was 30.  During this time I saw The Prodigy and Moby live many times and just LOVED them!

Alongside dance though I also loved alternative music particularly Tori Amos, Massive Attack, Primal Scream, Leftfield, Radiohead, The Verve, REM, Ocean Colour Scene, The Levellers, Bjork and there was still an allegiance to rock / grunge – U2, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Faith No More, Foo Fighters.  I also liked Def Leppard at some point and Metallica too.

And then came Brit Pop – Oasis or Blur – I unashamedly loved BOTH!  And I still do!  I also love Dodgy.  I love Dodgy!!

More recently I have fallen in love with The Killers and The White Stripes with thanks to David for these.

I could go on and on and on about music and there will always be something or someone that I would have forgotten to mention.

Here are some songs though that I would not want my children to miss – in no particular order and again there will be omissions that I will kick myself for later!

Put Your Head On My Shoulder – Paul Anka

Grace – U2 (contributing factor to Esther’s middle name)

If You’re Thinking Of Me – Dodgy

No Regrets – Robbie Williams

Hotel Yorba – The White Stripes (David was singing this to me when I first realised we would get married, way back in 2007,  just weeks after we had met)

Take Me to the Place Where the White Boys Dance – The Killers (listened to on journeys to and fro NICU)

Wires – Athlete (a tale of a premature baby)

At My Most Beautiful – REM (Thinking this will be the song that I walk down the aisle to!)

I’ll Stop the World – The Cure (Mine and David’s song)

Groove Is In The Heart – DeeLite

At the River – Groove Armada

Cherish – Madonna

Movin’ On Up – Primal Scream

Waterfall – The Stone Roses

Champagne Supernova – Oasis

This is a Low – Blur

Leftism – Leftfield (whole album)

Blue Lines – Massive Attack (whole album)

… there are just so many more …

I can feel a muscial evening coming on very soon.  How I love mornings when you wake up to find your CD collection spread out all over the floor where you have been playing song after song in a haze of memory and music.  I want my children to have that.  I want my children to grab music, embrace it and let it feed their soul, fuel their lives and be the soundtrack to their memories.

Music and life go hand in hand and help everyone tell their story.

I am sure that music will play a huge part in my children knowing mine.

This post was inspired by http://ghostwritermummy.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/music-i-want-my-children-to-listen-to-daniel-johnston/